Speak of the Devil
by Bowles
Summary: Post Ascension. Lance is dragged to the movies by Todd, where he runs into a certain X Geek and is convinced by Todd to 'go for it.' [Lancitty]


Post-Ascension. Set after the battle with Apocalypse; another take on what happened between Lance and Kitty afterwards. With Todd love, of course.

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution, any characters, etc, etc, bla, bla, bla.

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Speak of the Devil  
An X-Men: Evolution fanfic by Bowles 

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"Lance! Yo, Lance!"

He looked up, irritated. "What, Todd?"

"Ya wanna go to that Battle of the Bands thing they're having up at the fairgrounds?" called Todd from the kitchen. "All those bands suck, but it should be a laugh, at least!"

"No," he called back. "Last time we went that asshat threw an ice cream cone at me, remember?"

"Oh yeah." Todd hopped into the living room and onto the couch across from Lance. "What about the movies, then? I heard that new sci-fi movie is pretty tight."

"Sure, I guess," he replied, shrugging. "It's not like there's anything to do here, anyways."

Sighing, he got out of his chair and followed Todd out front. He winced as Todd got into the car – last week he'd accidentally slimed up the backseat when he sneezed – but got in next to him nonetheless.

"Man, you shoulda heard Freddy talk about it," Todd said as Lance turned on the engine. "I coulda sworn he was about to blow up, he was so excited. He kept goin' on and on about this one fight between these aliens and these space cop guys…"

"Great," Lance said, smirking, "we're going to see a cop movie. That just makes my day."

Todd grinned. "Ya know, when I was little, I wanted to be a cop. Catch the bad guys, shoot people, stuff like that."

"Was that before or after you started jumping forty feet into the air?"

For his comment he received a whack on the arm. "Before, dipshit!" Todd grinned again. "After I thought it'd be kinda… what's the word? It'd be kinda hypocritical for me to want to be a cop, since I was always stealing once I learned I could just slime up whoever I wanted to."

"Yeah, I saw you do that to that chick at 7-11 that one time when Fred wanted a slurpee." Lance chuckled as he came to a stop at a red light. "I gotta admit, that was pretty awesome."

"I know!" Todd exclaimed. He stuck his head out of the window and looked at the nearby sidewalk with squinted eyes. "Hold on a sec, lemme find someone."

"What the hell –"

"Found someone!"

Just as Lance had started to accelerate Todd shot out a glob of slime from his mouth and hit a nearby teenager. The teen yelled out in shock and fell to the ground, swearing.

"Woohoo!" Todd whooped, pumping his fist into the air. He turned to Lance quickly. "And before you start givin' me some lecture about morals or whatnot, that was a football player. He was the one that called Freddy a fatty that one time."

"The time when Fred turned over that picnic table outside the auditorium?" Lance asked, trying to think back to all the times Fred had been called fat (there was no short supply).

"Yeah, that one." Todd sniggered. "And then that other kid called him a freak and he tossed the trash can at him… good times, man, good times. It almost makes me miss school."

"_Nothing_ makes me miss school," Lance muttered, more to the steering wheel than to Todd. Suddenly a thought occurred to him and he recanted. "Okay, some things."

Todd arched an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"Just being there," Lance replied, only half-lying. "Having something to do. Not sitting around all day doing nothing."

"I get what you mean. If I have to watch Speedy comb his hair for thirty minutes with that mirror of his one more time, I think I'm gonna blow a gasket."

"Aw, but if you did that, Wanda might get angry!"

"You're one to talk," Todd shot back.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't act like you don't know!"

Lance sighed, hiding his growing discomfort. "I _don't_ know." At Todd's look he sighed again. "Really."

"Right. So that's why you were makin' those eyes at Pryde down in Mexico and rushing to her side and all that mushy romantic crap." Todd took on a smooth British accent and batted his eyes bashfully. 'Oh darling Kitty, are you all right? Have you been injured?'"

"What?" Lance exclaimed, but Todd only smirked. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You should've seen yourself! You were as bad as the Elf was with Tabby!" He let out a deep, affected breath and burst into a spot-on imitation of said Elf. _"Ah, mein kätzchen!"_

"You really wanna get smacked upside the head, don't you?" Lance mumbled, staring determinedly away from Todd. "Trust me, I'm not wasting my time on her. She won't even look at me."

Todd shrugged. "That's not what I've been told."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lance asked, his eyes narrowing.

The other boy crossed his legs in his seat and shrugged once more. "Nothing."

"Nothing my ass! Damn it, Todd, if you don't stop screwing with me I will drive this car into a wall! I swear I will!"

"Nah, you don't have the balls," Todd replied. At Lance's look he recoiled. "Okay, you have the balls, but I think you're smarter than that. You don't wanna scratch up the car."

"Damned right I don't." Lance sighed and relented. "It's already got enough scratches from Tabby's last 'test drive' – it doesn't need any more."

The light turned green, but the car in front of them didn't go. Lance honked his horn.

"C'mon! I got a movie to go to!" He looked back to Todd. "But what do you mean about her not looking at me? What have you been told about it?"

"Nothing," Todd repeated as innocently as he could. "Go, man, the guy in front of us went."

"Oh. Whoops." Lance pressed on the gas and the car started forwards. "You better stop messing with me, though. I might just bring down the roof at the movie theatre if you keep pissing me off like this."

All he received in return was a smirk and a laugh. "Damn, I really wanted to see this movie, too."

"C'mon, man," Lance said as he flipped on his turn signal. "Tell me what you heard."

Todd looked at him for several seconds before sighing and nodding. "Fine. But you didn't hear this from me." He leaned over and lowered his voice, as if someone hiding underneath the seats might hear them. "I just heard that our pretty Kitty has been thinkin' that maybe she gave you a rough deal with that whole thing at the council meeting. I mean, with what you did to help them back when Speedy messed with that train, and then down in Mexico… I just heard that she's feeling kinda bad about the whole thing."

"Oh." Lance stared ahead at the road, an unreadable expression on his face. "Huh. And who told you this?"

"Ah, dude, you know I can't give up my sources!" Todd replied, moving back over to the window and crossing his arms. "Let's just say I"ve got friends in high places."

"Mmhm," Lance said. He glanced at the other boy. "Rogue."

"Shit."

Lance grinned. "Knew it."

"Yeah, I overheard her and Wanda talkin' about it," he admitted. "Lemme tell ya, those girls can talk. I was listening through the crack in her door for over an hour!"

"You didn't need to tell me that."

"Yeah," Todd agreed, nodding, "probably not."

"I'll just forget you said it." Lance smiled. "So, Kitty misses me. She needs an avalanche to shake up her world. Someone to rock –"

"Please, dude, don't start with those God-awful puns," Todd interjected. "I hate it when you do that crap."

"Sorry." He leaned up over the wheel and looked to the side of the road. "This is it, right? We just turn in here?"

"Yeah, I think so."

The car swerved dangerously, narrowly missing an oncoming car and clipping the curb.

"Shit, dude, you tryin' to get us killed?" Todd exclaimed. He looked to their left. "Damn, look at that parking lot! Guess this movie's pretty popular. Just park out here, we'll walk. There ain't no reason to try findin' one closer."

"Yeah." Lance pulled in to the nearest empty space and parked the car. Todd hopped out before he had even turned off the engine, and Lance had to hurry to catch up with him.

"You got a hot date I don't know about?" he asked as he jogged up to his counterpart. Todd flashed him a full set of crooked yellow teeth.

"Oh yeah," he answered. "Total babe, too. You know me. I'm a player, man."

The line at the ticket booth was fairly short compared to the packed parking lot, and within a few minutes they were buying their tickets. Lance was just about to open the door to go in when it flew open and a large group of people streamed out.

Todd moaned. "Great. The X-Geeks. Just what I needed."

Summers was at the front, of course. Surprisingly, he didn't make a snide comment towards the two of them; he merely nodded at them and walked past. Most of them did this, actually, almost as if they didn't completely hate each other.

"Ah," Todd commented behind him, "speak of the devil…"

She was laughing with Rogue when he saw her. She was hearing that damned blouse again – the blouse that he loved, that made her look so innocent yet so tempting at the same time – and that damned pair of jeans with the hole in them, right above the knee. She noticed him right before she walked past him and stopped in her tracks.

"Oh! Hey, Lance!" she greeted him cheerfully.

"Um, hi, Kitty," he replied.

"Here we go again," Todd muttered behind him. Lance kicked him in the leg, and he began hopping around, cursing silently.

Kitty glanced at Todd for a moment before turning her attention back to Lance, still beaming. "So what's up? What're you guys here to see?"

"Uh, some movie with space cops or something." He turned to Todd. "What movie was it again?"

Todd was still hopping around, however, but luckily Kitty answered him. "Oh, right! That one! Kurt and Jamie saw it the other day and wouldn't shut up about it!"

"Yeah, neither would Freddy," Lance said, laughing nervously. He swore inwardly at his own awkwardness. "What'd you guys see?"

"That new comedy with that guy who was in that prison football movie. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention." She rolled her eyes. "Scott and Jean practically dragged us here."

"Yeah, Freddy wouldn't shut up about that one, either."

She looked to her friends before looking back and shooting him another award-winning smile. "I should probably go. It's been great seeing you, though! You should call me this weekend. We should go out and do something."

"Yeah," he breathed out, grinning. "Yeah, I will. That'd be nice."

She waved at him one last time as she walked off with Rogue, who looked slightly amused by the whole scene. Lance turned around to see that Todd was no longer hopping.

"That went surprisingly well," he said.

Todd raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, so? You kicked me in the leg for _that?_ 'I'll call you?' I mean, that's the best you can do?"

"Hey, at least she wants to hang out with me," Lance retorted. "That's a start at least."

"Whatever you say, dude." Todd rubbed his leg delicately. "I'm just sayin' that you shouldn't wait that long and leave her hangin'. You should go after her right now. Do something. Show her you care. I dunno. I'm not good with this shit. I'm just sayin' that if I were you, I wouldn't wait for tomorrow. I'd go get her right now."

"I dunno, man –"

"C'mon! Listen to me! I'm seriously injured because of you! You should at least listen to my advice! That's the least you can do for me!" Todd shook his head. "I don't get girls, but I think you should go. Don't wait. Let her see you're willing to try something, at least."

Lance glanced at the shrinking outline of Kitty and then back at the other mutant. "You really think so?"

"Hell yeah I do!" Todd exclaimed. He sighed. "Now go get her, or whatever it is they say at the end of those crappy romance movies Wanda watches. I'll save your seat."

"Fine." Lance smiled. "Get us good seats."

He began running after her – hopefully she wasn't in the car already.

"All right," Todd shouted after him, "but you're gonna have to get the food and drinks if I'm getting' the seats!"

He stopped in the middle of the parking lot and looked around. She was nowhere in sight. Disappointment began to set in the back of his mind. So much for that.

Just as he was about to turn to head back he saw her. She was waiting outside a van with the Elf and Rogue; Rogue was saying something to the Elf.

"What do ya mean, you can't find the keys?" she asked irritably.

"I don't know," the Elf responded. "I zought I had zem…"

Lance bit his lip. Here went nothing.

"Kitty!"

She looked over to him, a bemused expression on her face. "Lance?"

"Kitty, I need to talk to you about something." He stared at the ground determinedly and shifted his feet. "It's kinda important."

"Um… sure." He saw Rogue give Kitty a small smile as she walked past, which Kitty returned. All of this made him even more confused. She walked up to him, hands on her hips. "So, what's the deal?"

"Come over here," he said, guiding her by the hand behind a few cars until they were out of earshot of the other two. "Okay, I'm not really sure how to say this, to tell the truth… I mean, Todd told me to do it, but I'm not really sure what to do so just kinda bear with me."

"Okay, sure." She smiled at him again, and he swallowed back a large lump in his throat.

"Right. Here we go." He took a deep breath. "So, um, obviously you remember the whole thing at that council meeting where we kinda attacked you and everything and destroyed the parking lot."

She gave him an odd look. "Yeah, I remember."

"Well, you told me I was nothing but a hood –"

"Lance, really, we don't have to talk about this –"

"Wait," he said firmly. "I need to say this. So, you said that – and I'm not holding it against you or anything, so don't interrupt me – and then I said what I said, and we went on all mad at each other for a while. And then that crap with Quicksilver happened with the whole Brotherhood of Heroes bullshit, and that train got all messed up. And then of course the stuff with Apocalypse and Magneto in Mexico."

"Lance, what are you trying to say?" Kitty asked.

He sighed. "I guess… I guess I'm trying to say I'm sorry for all that shit. I'm a real idiot sometimes, and I'm sorry about that. I mean, you're an X-Man and all, but that doesn't mean I hate you or anything. I mean, you're the only reason I went to Mexico, really."

She cocked her head to the side. "Really?"

"Yeah," Lance admitted. He grinned. "You think I went down there because I'm some hero or something?"

"You could be. You've been a hero before."

"Yeah, and I found out it's not really my thing."

"Why not?" she asked, grinning. "You're good at it."

"Whatever," he laughed. Suddenly all anxiety had left him – this was why he liked her so much. She let him be him. With his newfound confidence, he reached down and took her hands in his. "I don't know what else I can say… you know what I'm saying, right?"

"I think so," Kitty replied. "And I'm sorry, too. About everything. You know that, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Good." She bit her lip and looked down at his feet. "So where do we go from here?"

"I dunno." Suddenly an idea struck him. "Hey… d'you wanna go see a movie?"

"Again?"

"Ah, we can leave halfway through. We can make fun of all the cheesy romance in it, too, if you want to. Just in case the space cops aren't enough for you."

She laughed and looked up to him. "Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great."

"Great." He grinned. "C'mon, let's go."

Within a couple minutes they were entering the theatre, where the previews were already playing. After several seconds he found Todd, who luckily had two seats next to him.

They brushed past several people to their seats, where Todd groaned. "Damn it, Lance! This is not what I mean when I told you to go get her! Now you lovebirds are gonna go and ruin the movie for me!"

"We brought popcorn," Lance replied, passing him the bucket.

Todd eyed it for a second before taking it and stuffing a handful in his mouth. "Fine," he said, spewing out little bits of popcorn, "I forgive you. Now shut up. The previews are the best part of the movie."

"Mmkay." Lance leaned back over to Kitty. "Yeah, this'll get boring pretty fast. Where you wanna go next?"

"I don't know," she said. "You decide."

"Okay." He looked at the screen for a few moments before looking back at her. "Got it."

"What?"

He grinned. "Joyride."


End file.
